


welcome to the inner workings of my mind

by callunavulgari



Category: Inception (2010), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Inception AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 17:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His first mistake is taking the job. His second mistake is going through with the job, after he finds out who the mark is. His third mistake is stepping into his ex-boyfriend’s head and thinking that everything’s going to turn out okay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	welcome to the inner workings of my mind

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr meme. Nico/Percy, sleepy, for peculiargrief. A wordy Inception AU kind of fits the prompt, right?

His first mistake is taking the job.

His second mistake is going through with the job, after he finds out who the mark is.

His third mistake is stepping into his ex-boyfriend’s head and thinking that everything’s going to turn out okay.

.

"This is a bad idea, Percy," Annabeth tells him, giving him a skeptical look over her shoulder. The labyrinth she’s designing is vast and complicated—something that he’ll have to understand before the week is up.

Percy doesn’t even look up from the photograph of Nico. He’s older, Nico, in the photo. It shouldn’t surprise Percy as much as it does, that there’s a scar across one cheek that Percy doesn’t recognize, muscle growth that he’d never mapped with his hands. Once upon a time, Nico di Angelo was the best damn extractor on Percy’s team. He’d been young, barely twenty, but that hardly mattered in their line of business. Besides, he’d come as a package deal with his sisters—best damn investment Percy had ever made.

They’d lasted a little over eight months as a couple, more than a year as a team.

Then Percy had gotten Bianca killed and everything had gone to shit.

"Yeah, probably," is all he says.

.

"You are _not_ going to make that boy look his dead sister in the face,” Jason hisses at him when he catches onto Percy’s plan. He’s glaring and he shouldn’t be—Jason wasn’t even _on the team_ when Nico was, he was Nico’s replacement, so there’s no reason that he should be looking at him like that.

Percy scowls, catching himself at the last minute when he realizes that his face is scrunching up the way Bianca’s always had when she was mad. He’s not even in Nico’s head yet and his brain is already going for gold.

"If we go along with this stupid job, you’re playing by my rules, Jackson."

"Like hell," Percy hisses back, suddenly incensed—because this isn’t his, Nico is _Percy’s_ responsibility and he isn’t gonna hand this job over because Jason Grace thinks he’s the shit.

He never sees the punch coming.

"My way or I’m walking, Jackson, and I’ll take Piper and Leo with me." The muscles in Jason’s jaw clench as Percy dabs at his bloodied lip. He doesn’t like the anger in Jason’s eyes, but he likes the sympathy hiding behind it even less. "You’re too blind to see how fucking compromised you are."

.

Nico’s head is fucked up. It’s all traps, which Percy should have expected. Doing a job on another extractor is always a bitch, but he should have remembered how crafty that kid was.

He’s militarized his head with walking skeletons. They don’t actually get anywhere until the second level, and when they do—

"Shit," Percy murmurs, his grip on Hazel’s image nearly wavering. Nico pauses, glancing over his shoulder.

"Hazel?" he asks, concern in his tone.

Percy shakes his head, unease creeping through his gut. Before them, is a large jar and beside it, is… Percy. His copy is holding a fucking _sword_ , which Nico isn’t even batting an eye at.

"He’s my insurance policy," Nico tells him—Hazel—wryly. He gives Percy’s copy a fond, but bitter look, and sighs.

"Percy Jackson’s an asshole, but he’s the bravest guy I’ve ever met." He hesitates for another moment, then explains in a rush, "and if there’s anyone I’d trust to guard my secrets, it’s him."

Keeping a hold of Hazel’s form is getting increasingly difficult. For the first time, he’s beginning to really realize that Annabeth was right—this was a stupid idea.

He grits his teeth as Nico leans in so that he can whisper something into the copy’s ear, his lips brushing along the lobe. The copy of Percy nods sharply, kisses Nico’s cheek, and with a single sweep of his sword, shatters the jar.

"Here," Nico whispers, padding back over to where Percy as Hazel is standing, trying not to tremble. Nico’s holding a piece of paper out to him. It’s written in Italian, but as Percy watches, the words melt into English. He takes it with trembling fingers, eyes scanning the page.

It’s all there. Everything they came for.

When he turns his gaze back onto Nico, he finds the other man giving him an inexplicably sad look.

_What_ , he thinks about saying. His mouth opens, starts to form the words, and then Nico’s sliding a dagger into his stomach, smooth and elegant.

He gapes, tasting blood on his tongue as Nico pulls the dagger free. Percy’s hands go to his belly, fingers instantly going to put pressure on the wound.

"You know," Nico says, quietly. "I always thought that if I ever saw you again, I’d be furious. But I’m not. Mostly, I’m just sad."

A hand strokes Percy’s cheek and for the span of a second, he has no clue who he is, if he’s Hazel or Percy, and then Nico’s brushing a kiss against his mouth, and the remnants of Hazel’s image shatters like glass.

"I missed you for months," Nico whispers against his lips. "My sister was dead and I couldn’t mourn her properly because I was too _fucking_ busy missing you.”

"Nico—”

"Don’t," Nico tells him, shuddering, even as his hand slides into Percy’s hair. "I don’t want to hear it."

"I’m _sorry,_ " Percy gasps, blood dribbling down his chin.

Nico nods. “You should be.”

Percy blinks and Nico kisses him again, deeper this time, like he’s trying to swallow Percy whole. Teeth scrape against his tongue and Percy moans raggedly, so much pain all but drowning that small spark of pleasure.

Distantly, he can hear the sounds of shouting—his team, probably, maybe getting slaughtered by the most morbid projections ever.

"I hope you’re happy with that information, Percy," Nico tells him, once he’s pulled away from Percy’s mouth. "Job well done."

His hands tighten in Percy’s hair, sliding down to grip his jaw with bruising fingers.

"Nico, wait—”

_Crack._

.

He wakes, cursing, but Nico’s already gone.


End file.
